Rubber-heel lift



Apr. 24, 1923. 1,452,891

- c. H. OAKLEY RUBBER HEEL LIFT Filed March 27, 191.9

' f/ JNVENTO/ of the prl'orya rt together: with".structural features gwh-i'ch gender the improved Patented Apr. 24, 1923.

CLIFFORD OAKLEY, or ama. NEW1 JEB$EY- BUBBER-HEE L hppl icationfiled March .27, 1919. S er ia1 .No.;2 85,46Ei.

To all whom z'tmay concern Be. 1t known that I, CLIFFORD H. OAKLEY,

a citizen, of the United States, and aresi dent of Trenton, in the county o fMercer and State of New Jersey, have inventedan Improvement in Rubber-Heel Lifts, of which the following is a specification. I i i The present ,inventiomrelates to an improvementin rubber heel lifts adapted to be attached tothe heel of a shoe or the like,one

object to provide a readily attachable resilientflift which ,willfembody the edge gripping qualities claimed; for variousilifts more effeotivelyged e gripping. and more wear ll fesistingthan tim heretofore is common use Among heels of the prior art are those. of

curved cross" sectional contour having upper}, faces o cav an bo tom ai f ces rre- P g1y ,O anlv ePPlym a hfeel of this character, it has' b een found necessary to locate the fastening meansrelatively near the center and thereforecorrespondingly distant from theedge's in order H to seciiresu ficient de o m tio of e f;

to makefitconform to thejfflat heel surface of theshoe. {In applying sucha lift, it is necessary lto deform the latter' throughout its entire body, the 'centeijheing dlsplaced a tive y arge. dis ance w h e pe t t9. the? heel contacting .edges depending. upon the degreeof co'ncavity of the lift; An examination of this structure fro'm a' practical mechanioalpoint of view. discloses that {the I resilient force ;-residi ngj the material of a lift of the shape mentioned. is tending constantly to force the centerthereof wn- Wardly vand away from the heel. Thestrain lift at the point of fastening. Secondly,

when the wearer of such a li t strik s it m": the lift.

against an upwardly or outwardly projecting object, such as the tread of'astep the long lever permits less resistance to thetearing of the lift away from the heel at the point of fastening, or in other words; does; not permit full"utilization of the local re- .silienc v of the material adjacent to the edgeg I One of the important objects of appli-y cants invention" is to provide a'liftwhich ence tot he heel without violent distortion of such adherenc e by an allocationjor position- ,may embody the advantage of close adherthe entire 'loodyfof the lift, and to insure ing off the fastening means with respect to the edge of the lift and} the deformed por--* tion thereof. Itis' appreciated that there is not necessarily a novel idea"merely in placing the fastening nieansmore' orless adjacent to the edgeof the lift. -However, I

in such forms of heel lifts as have heretofore been, made, this placing of the fasten- I Y ingdmeans' has been of no special significanc'efl Such, placlngbecomes i pmamonly when it bears a definite .fu'nctlonal' 'relation 'to distorted portions of-a heel'lift 1 plated in applicants structure.

OneT'embodiment pf my invention is illus-- ,trated, in the drawings accompanying the;

present specificatiomin which,

" Figure 2, a transverse vertical section on the.lin'e-2 2 of Figure 1, H i

33 ofFigure 1, Figure 4, a plan view of a modified form oflift," i

Figure 3. a vertical, section on i the line Figure 5, a vertical section on the line- 5-5 of Figure 4, and,

Figure 6, a" transverse vertical section of having the novel conformations contem Figure 1 is atop plan view of a preferred jlform of lift,

the lift illustrated in Figure 1. applied to 9. i

heel.

The lift illustrated in the drawings may comprise a central core 1, shown clearly in Figures 2 and 3 as having parallel top and bottom surfaces and a deformable portion 2 surrounding said core and having a heel edge gripping rim 9, a concave upper surface between said rim and the core, and a correspondingly convex lower surface. A plurality of washers 3 may be imbedded in the material of the lift with their openings in" register with recesses 4 adapted to receive nails 5 or other suitable means for securing the lift to a heel, said recesses being positioned along the line of maximum distortion when the lift is so secured on a heel.

In the modification shown in Figure 4, a continuous recess of depression 8 in the core 1 separates the central portion of said core from a relatively narrow heel contacting portion 6, the continuity of which may be interrupted by transverse depressions thus permitting a free yielding of said portion 6 toward said transverse depressions and toward the continuous depression 8 when the lift is deformed by application to a heel in the manner contemplated.

The lift embodying my invention may be of substantially uniform thickness and the peripheral rim of the deformable portion is preferably normally in the same plane with or below the upper surface of the central core. An important feature of the invention is the positioning of the fastening means substantially in a line'with the deepest portion of the concave upper surface, or along the line of maximum deformation or distortion. Thus, when the nails 5 are driven home, the portion 2 will be distorted along a line surrounding the undistorted portion or core 2 whereby the upper or concave sur face will'be displaced from its normal shape and position into immediate contact with the heel surface, as illustrated in Figure 6, without displacement of the central core. Where the nails or other fastening means pass through the portion of the lift of greatest displacement, the displacement of material on each side of said fastening means or toward and away from the core will normally decrease by equal amounts in both directions, thus securing effective gripping contact of the lift with the heel with minimum deformation of the lift and no displacement of the core.

Where the form illustrated in Figure 5 is used, it is contemplated that the grooves 7 and 8' will permit a yielding movement of the lift material in a direction toward the center as well as away from the center, thus more evenly distributing in both directions the strains set up when the'fastening means are driven into the heel in such a manner as to distort the deformable portion of the lift.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that the improved construction provides a lift in which there is obtained in a novel manner an effective gripping contact with the heel edge. The fastening means located and applied as described distribute the distorting forces evenly throughout the deformable portion of the lift and permits effective edge gripping with a minimum of distortion. Thus, what might be referred to as local resilience of the material is per mitted to effectively resist forces .tending to disengage the lift from the heel, a result not possible where the lift is attached to a heel at points relatively distant from the heel gripping edge.

I claim as my invention 1. A resilient heel lift comprising a central core having parallel flat top and bottom surfaces, the top surface being of a sufficient area to forma stable base to sup port the lift when resting thereon and a deformable portion of uniform width surrounding said core and having a top surface normally concave when undistorted with the outer edge in the plane of the flat top surface forming a peripheral heel engaging rim, and a convex bottom surface corresponding to the concave top; surface, said deformable portion being arranged to be deformed upon attachment to a heel to bring portions of the concave top surface into contact with the bottom heel surface without displacement of the central core substan tiall as described.

2. A resilient heel lift having a central flat portion of a width equal to substantially one-third of the width of the lift and of substantial area lying in the plane of the edge of the lift and a surrounding deformable portion of substantially uniform width which surrounding portion presents a groove of substantially uniform width on the top face of the lift and a, corresponding ridge on the tread face and nail holes passing through the deformable portion along sub- 7 stantially the center thereofand extending at right angles to the plane of the lift.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification this 22nd day of hlfarch 1919. CLIFFORD H. OAKLEY. 

